⚡️ Enlightening Bolts

🎼 The Orchestra of Ancient Healing Wisdom & Practices with Dr. John Churchill: Dr. John Churchill spent 15 years training and teaching “Great Seal” meditation in an Indo-Tibetan lineage and is a founding member of the Integral Institute led by the well-known philosopher, Ken Wilber. Over the last 25 years, John has developed his style of practice — an integrated Fourth Turning path — that weaves together somatically based contemplative practices that integrate psychodynamic healing, adult development, and meditation. Listen here.

👁 Rewiring Your Life: A radical therapy based on eye movements can desensitise painful memories, heal hurts and aid transformation at warp speed. Read here.

🎮 EndeavorOTC: A video game app clinically designed to treat and improve focus in adults, anytime, anywhere. Try it here.

🎇 Image of The Week

Located in Death Valley National Park, California, the Moving Stones, or "Sailing Stones," of Racetrack Playa have intrigued scientists and visitors for decades. These large rocks, some weighing several hundred pounds, are found with long trails behind them on the dry lake bed, suggesting they have moved across the surface without any apparent external force. While various theories were proposed over the years, recent research has shown that the movement is caused by a combination of water, ice, and wind. During winter, the playa can be covered in a thin layer of water which freezes around the rocks at night. As the ice melts during the day and is pushed by light winds, it drives the rocks at slow speeds, leaving tracks in the muddy surface. This phenomenon was directly observed and documented in 2014, demystifying one of nature's intriguing puzzles.

⏳ Deep Time Adaptation

Throughout history, humanity has found two primary ways to adapt to its surroundings. The first is by molding ourselves to fit within the existing environment. The second is by harnessing our innate abilities to shape that environment to our liking. It's a delicate dance between conforming to our surroundings and transforming them.

In today's society, markers such as wealth and fame have become synonymous with success. Those who achieve these markers are often seen as the fittest, harking back to Darwinian principles. However, when we delve deeper, we find that these systems of success, built on ever-shifting sands, are inherently unstable. Winning in a game that's doomed to topple is a Pyrrhic victory. Our children inherit not just our financial legacies but also the consequences of our actions.

Thus arises a pivotal question: In the vast expanse deep time, how do we adapt in a manner that ensures prolonged coexistence on Earth? The answer may lie not in the quest for short-lived fame or financial gain but in becoming the harbingers of a culture that prioritizes long-term collective well-being over immediate individual “success.” It's about being the unseen pioneers whose impact might only be recognized in hindsight—or perhaps never at all.

To be candid, I don't possess a blueprint for what being this kind of unseen pioneer entails. Yet, I believe it's a journey worth embarking upon, even if it means stumbling in the dark. True, it cannot be defined by catchy phrases or buzzwords, nor is it a badge to display to the world. It's a personal reckoning and a quest.

It's vital to understand that our worth isn't a prize to be won from the cultural game many find themselves ensnared in. No culture or system can truly grant or withhold our inherent worth—it's something we've always possessed, unconditionally. Breaking free from the illusion that our value is tied to societal approval is, in my view, the first step in this transformative journey.

❤️‍🔥 The Attitude For Vital Aliveness

Enjoy these musings from the psychological forefather William James:

“Seek out that particular mental attribute which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive, along with which comes the inner voice which says, 'This is the real me,' and when you have found that attitude, follow it.”

“I am done with great things and big things, great institutions and big success, and I am for those tiny, invisible molecular moral forces that work from individual to individual, creeping through the crannies of the world like so many rootlets, or like the capillary oozing of water, yet which if you give them time, will rend the hardest monuments of man's pride.”

“It would probably astound each of us beyond measure to be let into his neighbors mind and to find how different the scenery was there from that of his own.”

🤓 Learn This Word

Han: A Korean word that describes sorrow, regret, grief, resentment, "a dull ache of the soul", yet passive and not revenge seeking; waiting for the injustice to be righted

⏳ From The Archives

A hand-picked classic HighExistence article.

Charlie Kaufman on the Deficiencies of Consumerist Culture and the Mind-Altering Effects of Media

Charlie Kaufman has one of the most inventive and original minds in Hollywood. That’s probably why he has eluded mainstream success.

Mr. Kaufman is perhaps best known for writing the modern classic Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, for which he was awarded an Oscar for best original screenplay. He’s also the writer of Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Anomalisa, and the writer-director of the little-known but brilliant Synecdoche, New York, which Roger Ebert named the “best film of the decade” (2000-2010).

In the words of fellow writer Jeremy Brock:

Fans love him. Critics adore him. Mainstream audiences… ignore him.

And that’s a shame.

​[Continue Reading]

🎬 Endnote

I hope you enjoyed this issue of Down The Rabbit Hole. Feel free to reply and tell me what you think.

Want to help spread the word?

I love sharing these gems of wisdom and wonder with you each week. If you love receiving them and want to help me spread the word, here is one quick way you can do that:

Forward this email to one friend.

That's it. It will take 5 seconds and will help us spread the good vibes and reach more people. I appreciate you.

With Wonder,

Mike Slavin